Anticipation Vertigo

Today, I decided to revisit the SVA curriculum for the next two years. As I read the class descriptions, I got nervous, dizzy, my hands went all clammy and I got half a stock.

It brings tears to my eyes. Next week is five months and counting.

Complete

I got into SVA, my first choice for grad school programs. So, um, that's pretty fucking excellent.

Listen: Podcast, no22

I'm a liar and a cheat. You good people had a wealth of thrilling, mind-bending, explosive music coming your way and I tooks it froms ya. Robbed it right out of your hands. Sorry. Enjoy:

“Don’t Give Up” by Noisettes
“To Go Home” by M. Ward
“The Mountain” by Professor Murder
“Citizens of Tomorrow” by Tokyo Police Club
“Only” by Nine Inch Nails (video)
“Teen Age Riot” by Sonic Youth
“Yea Yeah” by Matt & Kim (video)
“9 Crimes” by Damien Rice (video)
“Someone to Love” by Fountains of Wayne
“The Birth and Death of the Day” by Explosions In the Sky
“Lying In the Bed I’ve Made” by Aqueduct
“Fire Island, AK” by The Long Winters (video)
“Bridge To Canada” by Noisettes
“Fall Inn” by The Ponys
“Then He Kissed Me” by The Crystals
“Terrible Lie” by Nine Inch Nails

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no22 :: Terrible Lies We Tell Ourselves (mp3)
* no22 :: Terrible Lies We Tell Ourselves (enhanced)

That's it for episode 22. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Rotation: March 18 to March 25

Writer's Block by Peter, Bjorn and John | Our Earthly Pleasures by Maximo Park | Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal | I'll Sleep When You're Dead by El-P | Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof | Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem | Return to Cookie Mountain by TV on the Radio | All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone by Explosions in the Sky | Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture

An Innoculation Against Failure

Yesterday I passed a friend in Columbus Circle and she asked me if I'd heard back from any of the MFA programs I applied to. That's all anybody asks me these days. A month ago, out of the blue, my days were suddenly punctuated by periodic moments of crushing dread. I would find myself sitting and staring at the calendar on my desk at work for as many as five minutes, my breathing shallow and my heart rate elevated. I didn't expect to hear back from the schools until the final week in March and, as such, that week became the subject of much fatalistic obsession. My own personal emotional time sink.

Shortly after submitting my applications I read "How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy. Unlike similar graphic design how-to books, Shaugnessy's advice is an invaluable resource with a lot of useful information on how to get a job with or without any professional experience. While I was putting the finishing touches on my application package, my mind was elsewhere, wrapped up in admittedly lame day dreams of 12 hour work days at large design firms, doing everything that was asked of me and soaking up as much knowledge as I could. The fantasy of the (albeit creative) work-a-day world was a defensive mechanism. In applying for school as a self-described outsider, I was less and less sure that my gamble would pay off. I would temporarily assuage my fears by scrolling through my portfolio slides online or catching a glimpse of the extra DVD portfolio cases stacked on my window sill. But those moments would pass and the insecurity would come roaring back in. I kicked myself for ever letting on what I was planning, for ever telling anyone I knew that I'd applied, for laying bare the intensity of my desire to matriculate to friends over dinner.

Work was a realistic option. I wouldn't get into school but I'd get to save $60,000+ and I'd get to avoid the overly romanticized bohemian lifestyle of the impoverished, newly-married grad student. Save your ramen and drippy, Chianti bottle candles. I'd get a job and keep my book and dunny habit. It was a safer choice. I was more secure.

It was also fucking bullshit. Yesterday I got into Parsons The New School For Design and the California College of Arts.

Two down, two to go, fingers crossed. It now seems likely that I'll be in New York for the next five years. It is also assured that in six months I'll be a student again. When I grow up, I'm gonna be a graphic designer.

Or an astronaut fireman.

Things Divine

Dear God,
It's me Margaret. Thanks for clearing up all of those period questions. But now I've got a real doozie. Why did you create the Internet?

Margaret-
Just because.
-God

Listen: Podcast, no21

It's been a month. A bleeding month and I ain't got much to show for it 'cept an audience that is likely growing tired of my bullshit excuses. Aww, don't cry babies. You know I only hit you to show you how much I love you. Enjoy:

“North American Scum” by LCD Soundsystem (video)
“Everything’s Just Wonderful” by Lily Allen
“The Zookeeper’s Boy” by Mew (video)
“Must Be the Moon” by !!!
“Engrish Bwudd” by Man Man
“Cellphone’s Dead” by Beck (video)
“(Antichrist Television Blues)” by Arcade Fire
“Spitting Venom” by Modest Mouse
“Your Southern Can Is Mine” by The White Stripes
“Weird” by Menomena
“There Is No There” by The Books
“Fiery Crash” by Andrew Bird
“Flathead” by The Fratellis (video)
“The Partisan But He’s Got To Know” by Swan Lake
“Shut Up I Am Dreaming of a Place Where Lovers Have Wings” by Sunset Rubdown

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no21 :: Greetings...FROM THE FUTURE! (mp3)
* no21 :: Greetings...FROM THE FUTURE! (enhanced)

Here's some links I mentioned in this episode:

* "(Antichrist Televisions Blues)" originally to be called "Joe Simpson"?
* The White Stripes announce "Icky Thump"
* How to correctly pronounce "de Stijl". Something new everyday, eh?

That's it for episode 21. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

We Thank You In Advance For Your Patience

Last night I finished 90% of a new podcast, which means it's not finished. But! But! It does mean I will be posting the episode for your listening pleasure tomorrow. And then I'm going to post a new episode next Monday. And the Monday after that! And then we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL FALL OUT BOY AND PANIC! AT THE DISCO AND THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS ARE A DISTANT FUCKING MEMORY!

YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!

Potential Theme

This weekend I re-formatted my original design for the Save the Date mailers to facilitate easier mailing and provide a more legible point size. Claire addressed and stuffed envelopes while I toiled with an exacto knife and cutting mat. The first batch is in the mail. I am now in the process of designing a simple, informational website (no online engagement videos, you know who you are). And then I get to sink my teeth into the actual invitations which are more likely to take the form of a 12 page travel guide.

Personal Statement

Why do you want to pursue graduate studies?

So that when I'm done, I can get a job where the day's indignities are doled out by a person whom I actually respect.

Crude Sentiment

In the last two years, during the week leading up to Valentine's Day, I'm reminded of these Valentines I made a while back. I really should make new ones. I really should make all manner of cards. But I'm a busy boy. Feel free to use the old ones if you please.

Jenůfa at The Met

Claire and I saw Janáček's Jenůfa at The Met on Saturday evening. It was a welcome return to what has been, with the exception of last year, an annual tradition of ours. The staging was appropriately bleak, but the story and incorporation of Czech folk music into otherwise traditional operatic forms was really intriguing and made up for the absence of visual stimulation (giant rocks used as metaphor for the burden of a character's guilty conscience isn't terribly original). A doff of the cap to the xylophone player in the pit on Saturday night. He was in excellent form. Moravian villages at the end of the 19th century could definitely use a bit of new blood injected into the bachelor pool. Any woman that considers herself lucky for ending up with the man that mutilated her face in a moment of lustful spite could definitely use a mani/pedi and an e-Harmony account for her birthday.

Common Courtesy

Claire and I were waiting at the elevator bank in a hospital lobby the other day when two paramedics wheeled in a guy on a tricked-out gurney. This wasn’t the emergency room, just the good ol’ fashioned, low-priority front entrance. Now, dude wasn’t spewing anything black and bubbly out of any of his major orifices. Nor was he sporting any new holes or perforations care of a dispute settled with hot lead. But nevertheless, he was on a stretcher. And the rest of us were standing.

That said it was pretty crowded in the lobby. And some of us had been waiting there already for 30, maybe as much as 45 seconds. So I guess you can’t hold it against us for not stepping aside and giving him our place in line. In NY, you better be able to show a little uncoiled intestine if you expect to have any chance of jumping the queue.

Heartfelt

Dear Writers of LOST,

Why do you suck my balls?

Sincerely,
Steven

Listen: Podcast, no20

Sweet Christ! I went overboard for the twentieth episode celebration and packed this 'cast with more music than you can shake a cursor at. Be warned, the file is 94mb and will take an eternity to d'load. Enjoy:

“Magick” by Klaxons (video)
“Once and Never Again” by The Long Blondes (video)
“Swallow Tattoo” by The Long Blondes
“Smile” by Lily Allen (video)
“Hunting for Witches” by Bloc Party
“Muscle ‘n Flo” by Menomena
“Underwater (You And Me)” by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
“Monkey & Bear” by Joanna Newsom
“History’s Stranglers” by The Bronx (video)
“What You Know” by T.I. (video)
“Way Down In the Hole” by Five Blind Boys of Alabama
“Wamp Wamp (What It Do) (Feat. Slim Thug)” by Clipse
“How Shall I To Heaven Aspire” by Rock Plaza Central
“Ankle Injuries” by Fujiya & Miyagi
“History Song” by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
“Gravity’s Rainbow” by Klaxons (video)
“Montréal -40°C” by Malajube (video)
“Ruby Tuesday” by Franco Battiato
“The Perfect Me” by Deerhoof
“Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing” by The Minutemen

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no20 :: Too Long for Two-Oh (mp3)
* no20 :: Too Long for Two-Oh (enhanced)

That's it for episode 20. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Also This

New Portfolio Slide

I'm finishing up a few slides for the apps that are due the first of February. This is an invoice for Nerd Elite Design, to be used in the event of late payment. It's printed on x-ray film of a broken limb, wrapped around a baseball bat. Very mafioso. There were a couple other versions on the same theme involving bricks, broken windows, a severed finger, burlap soaked in kerosene and a ransom note, but they seemed a bit theatrical. No matter. The slides:

Listen: Podcast, no19

I'm back in the podcasting state of mind, for the time being. Most of the apping is done so I should have the necessary time to get these out each week, as was my custom in the past. Without further ado, I give you the tracks:

"The Prayer" by Bloc Party
"Energy" by The Apples in Stereo
"Saint John" by Cold War Kids
"Parentheses" by The Blow
"Suffer for Fashion" by Of Montreal
"Who's Gonna Sing?" by Prototypes
"Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra)" by The Teddybears
"La La Love You" by Pixies
"Wildflowers" by Tom Petty
"Ain't No Other Man" by Christina Aguilera
"Hold Up" by Girl Talk
"Too Deep" by Girl Talk
"Smash Your Head" by Girl Talk
"The Blues Are Still Blue" by Belle & Sebastian

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no19 :: I Let My Tape Rock (mp3)
* no19 :: I Let My Tape Rock (enhanced)

That's it for episode 19. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Portfolio Slides

As I prep my portfolio slides, I'm sticking them here. Join me as I tinker with the order and try to take in everything in a more distilled form.

Portfolio Package